'Engaging the Enemy'

  Sunning beside the sea. So last week was spent grabbing the most of the vitamin D that was available on the shores of the Mediterranean. Well that was the theory. In practice, I was woken by Alison at 9am in the mornings, grab a bowl of cereal and go back into a deep sleep, till 1pm. At which time I would get up, dressed, have lunch and go for a walk down the beach. Two, maybe three hours later, I would find myself exhausted and collapse back on the bed and conk out again. In contrast to this, Aoife had a ball down at the family pool with Alison and Geraldine, Alison's sister who came with us on the break. Geraldine is a qualified nurse. When not splashing at the pool, it was the turn of the major shopping areas to play host to a little 9 year old girl who had saved up all her pocket money for weeks in advance of this trip.  Coming home just last Sunday saw a few parallels line up. The Airlingus jet waiting to take us home was the St. Aoife.   The Captain in command of ...

Duration: 3mins 6secs.  It's not everyday you get an invite to partake in  The RICOH Lord Mayor Hot Air Balloon Regatta  over London City.  www.balloonregatta.com  And it's not everyday, with necessary short meteorological notice that you get there to fly in it.  A sincere thank you to CityJet for sponsoring my short notice airline ticket that's going to make this happen.    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fingers crossed for a favourable weather forecast.  This event is organised by   

My Vlog update from the shores of the Mediterranean.  (Duration: 1m 27sec) Hello all from the Mediterranean. Travel to hear went well with just a 50min drive from the airport to where we are staying. We flew out on an Aer Lingus A330, which carried the name 'St. Patrick ', for those that know me well, Patrick is indeed my first name.  Last night went a bit pear-shaped. As I retired early to bed, all I could think of was the fantastic family memories I left here with last year. The end result was a bitter episode of crying myself to sleep last night. Being tired from a 4am start yesterday morning probably didn't help. But the sun rises and does so every da y, even for my day. So today was much better.  With the scenery and light available here, it was time for a video blog (vlog). It's stored away from Facebook so can shared with all. It's just short of 90secs so not too hard on the eye lol.   E:  hello@aidanmurphy.com   W:  aidanmurphy.com ...

  Aoife and her 'lucky' Hot Air Balloon.  Handwritten cards are just the best ! You know you are being spoiled when it's these type of cards that out-number the standard affray in ones home. My good friends Anna & Trevor Kellet are regular signatures on such cards. Anna's enthusiasm for designing and making such cards rubs off brilliantly on Aoife, who is always eager to get involved when the Kellett's call. Just yesterday, I loved when Aoife piped-up in the kitchen in her cheery melodious voice:   "Special Daddy Card for the best Daddy" <above>.    After the last week that was, this card (above), made sure that the Daddy-Aoife  hugs were duly ranked up and reciprocated. Being off all of my dreaded chemotherapy now for 5 consistent weeks is beginning to take a hold but in a different away. I stayed in bed and have slept most of Sunday-Tuesday inclusive. You see, with chemotherapy comes the steroids. Those (now)  missing steroids are errr m...

  A Class Act.  4th Class in St. Seachnalls School give their thumbs up to  'Follow Your Dreams' With just one week off all chemotherapy, my body is still trying to adjust. It has a serious detoxification to grasp and there is always that chance it will only last 8 weeks till my next scan. But we must grasp these olive branches where ever we can. In real world terms, it meant last Wednesday I could give a talk to 4th Class at St. Seachnalls. After the talk, I was so surprised at the intelligence of the questions asked by the kids. I even got my first question of "Aidan, did you ever fall out of the basket?"   How embarrassing for me, with the short reply quip of YES, followed eagerly with a "let me explain". All going well, my 'Follow Your Dreams' talk and presentation has landed on very wanting sets of ears. I'm pretty sure it has.  The following morning, sees my weekly pilgrimage of heading to Drogheda, or to be more percise, the Gary Kelly Sup...

TODAY is the 18th anniversary of the beatification of Padre Pio.  Today is also the day I got the best (post cancer) news ever.  My inoperable tumour has been subdued considerably by the onslaught of chemotherapy. I'm told its now time for my chemotherapy to take a break of 8 weeks. They tell me my body has been inundated with toxins in fighting this thing. It needs a break and that can happen now as the bastard tumor has been very receptive to the kicking it has been getting from this toxic treatment.  There will be an immediate scan in 8 weeks time and this will decide the next step in this big battle.  Massive Thank You to ALL on Team Murf.  I couldn't have got this far without brilliant friends and fantastic family.  Don't take my written word for it.  Watch and listen to it instead.  Very Best !!! Murf .    aidanmurphy.com.